It's always about opportunity, and then balance.
I see career as a means to an end; to my wife career is critical. It's basically gone full circle. I was blessed with opportunity to provide nicely for us while she spent 10 years in university completing her doctoral degree. Armed with that, and as an extremely high achiever, she has smashed any glass ceiling that may have existed in her chosen career. And keeps climbing. And she loves it. She travels internationally for work approximately 40% of the time (though almost never on weekends), and to be honest that works out very well for all of us. This allowed me to dial my career way back (and let's not kid ourselves - I could do without working entirely). My 9 year old daughter and I enjoy a fantastic relationship that might be less likely in more conventional circumstances, and I do enjoy my own time (as well as frequent reunions after a bit of time away from momma).
But this had way more to do with privilege granted me, by virtue of a family with the means to entirely fund education, and a demand that I do so. It was my ultimately choice to make something of that opportunity, but that choice would not have been on the table without first enjoying that privilege. Pulling one's self up by the bootstraps is mostly fallacy - or is a lifelong struggle at best, and improving one's lot in life is generally only incremental without working yourself half to death in the process.
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